The present invention relates to a radiation photographing apparatus using radiation image converting panels.
With the conventional radiation photographing apparatus such as the X-ray photographing apparatus, for example, X-rays which have passed through body tissues of a patient are exposed on a photographic film to obtain an X-ray image. However, the X-ray photographing apparatus which uses this film has been questioned these days because the silver which is used to make it is becoming more scarce.
A technique disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,527 has attracted attention under this circumstance, proposing a method of recording X-ray images without using silver. In the case of this radiation image converting method, radiation image converting panels each having a stimulable phosphor are used. X-rays which have passed through the patient's body tissues are absorbed by the stimulable phosphor of the panel. When the surface of the radiation image converting panel is then scanned by excitation light, the image stored in the stimulable phosphor is picked up as phosphorescence, which is detected and electrically treated to form a radiation-penetrated image.
In the X-ray photographing apparatus which uses conventional X-ray film, the demand has changed from the cassette type, wherein film is housed in a cassette which is set in a camera every time a photograph is taken, to the cassetteless type, wherein film is picked up from a magazine in which a plurality of films are housed, and in which the film is fed to the section where X-ray photography is carried out. In the case of this cassetteless type, several magazines are prepared, one for every film size, to enable photography to be carried out using various film sizes.
FIG. 1 shows the conventional X-ray photographing apparatus of the film cassetteless type. An upper X-ray tube 12 is opposite a lower spot shot means 14, with a patient 10 interposed between them. The spot shot means 14 is provided with three openings 16, 18 and 20 for film magazines. A feed magazine 22 in which one size of film is housed is inserted into the opening 16. Another magazine 24 in which a second size of film is housed or a third magazine 26 in which a third size of film is housed can be inserted into the second opening 18. Exposed films of various sizes are received in a magazine 28 which is inserted into the third opening 20. The passage of film from the magazines 22, 24, 26 to exposure position and then from the exposure position to the magazine 28 has a construction which enables any size of film to be conveyed.
With the conventional X-ray photography apparatus of the cassetteless type, therefore, a plurality of feed and pickup magazines must be provided, thereby making its operation troublesome and its construction complicated. In addition, the construction of its conveying line becomes complicated in order to enable the various sizes of films to be conveyed.